CFCSEIC NEWS BRIEFS W/E 9 JAN 1998

CFCSEIC NEWS BRIEFS W/E 9 JAN 1998

[CSEIC]

Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Briefs
Week Ending:  January 9, 1998

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CONTENTS:
YEAR 2000 SURVIVAL IS TOP PRIORITY FOR FEDERAL AGENCIES
ANNOUNCING THE 10th ANNUAL SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
VISUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT OF SOURCE CODE
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YEAR 2000 SURVIVAL IS TOP PRIORITY FOR FEDERAL AGENCIES
Topic:  Y2K

Is survival of the millennium the focus of your agency's Y2K compliance 
program?  If not, it should be.  It's too late to concentrate on overall 
compliance of your information technology enterprise.

The congressional Year 2000 report card for agencies reveals a situation 
where most agencies will not be fully compliant by 2000.  Therefore, CIOs 
must focus on ridding Millennium "bugs" from "mission-essential" systems, 
while placing systems that do not directly affect the agency's core 
mission on the back-burner.

This survival strategy should contain the following strategic points:

+ Mission-critical prioritization of all enterprise systems.
+ Constant re-application of "triage" to ensure survivability.
+ Use of risk management principles.
+ Contingency planning.

SOURCE:  Todd Kersh, "Year 2000 survival is No. 1 priority for federal 
agencies", Federal Computer Week, Jan. 5, 1998, v12, n1, p. 17, 
http://www.fcw.com.

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ANNOUNCING THE 10th ANNUAL SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE

April 19 to April 23,1998
Salt Palace Convention Center
Salt Lake City, Utah.

Co-Sponsored by:
United States Air Force, United States Army, United States Marine 
Corps, United States Navy, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), &
Utah State University Extension

For more information, including registration procedures, contact:

http://www.stc98.org
-or-
Utah State University at 435/801-797-0787

Featuring:
Over 300 Technology Exhibits
14 half-day tutorials, 10 concurrent presentation tracks
Additional Tracks including IEEE/EIA, SPMN, SEI, JAWS, DII, and more.
Birds-of-a-Feather Luncheons	

SOURCE:

STC Conference Administration		Voice: 801/435-797-0787
5045 University Blvd			Fax:    801/435-797-0861
Logan UT 84321-5045			stcadmin@conted1.usu.edu
http://www.stc98.org

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VISUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT OF SOURCE CODE
Topic:  Software Engineering, Ada

In the December issue of "CrossTalk", the GRASP (Graphical 
Representations of Algorithms, Structures, and Processes) project is 
discussed.  The GRASP project, which has successfully prototyped a new 
algorithmic-level graphical representation for software the control 
structure diagram (CSD)is currently focused on the generation of a new 
fine-grained complexity metric called the complexity profile graph (CPG). 
The primary impetus for creation and refinement of the CSD and the CPG is 
to improve the comprehension efficiency of software and, as a result, 
improve reliability and reduce costs. 

The current GRASP release provides automatic CSD generation for Ada 95, 
C, C++, Java, and Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description 
Language (VHDL) source code, and CPG generation for Ada 95 source code. 
The examples and discussion in this article are based on using GRASP with 
Ada 95. 

SOURCE:  Cross, Chang, Hendrix, Chapman, & McQuaid, "Visualization and 
Measurement of Source Code", CrossTalk, December 1997, v10, n12, pp. 16-19.
http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/Crosstalk/crostalk.html

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